When Afghanistan embarked on a limited-overs tour of Zimbabwe, there wasn’t too much expectation, at least on the part of the neutral observer, as they had last played a One-Day worldwide during the 2015 World Cup and a bit of rustiness was understandable.
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ZIMBABWE suffered further embarrassment against Afghanistan, this time around being clean swept 2-0 in the Twenty20 global cricket series after losing by five wickets with one ball remaining in the second T20 at Queens Sports Club yesterday.
It was the icing on the cake for Afghanistan after they earlier scripted a 3-2 victory in the ODI series, becoming the first associate nation to beat a full-member team in a bilateral ODI series.
Zimbabwe posted a frightening 191-run goal after opting to bat first, because of a fast-hearth fifty four-run knock by Sean Williams.
It took a tumbling catch at long-off by Madziva to remove Ghani and, with the batsmen having crossed, Chibhabha then deceived Shahzad with a slower ball to trap him lbw for a relatively sedate 24.
Mohammad Nabi (15) and Karim Sadiq (11) were both run out, with the wicket of Najibullah Zadran (two) sandwiched in between, but Gulbadin’s unbeaten fifty saw the side to another momentous win.
Williams needed just 21 balls to bring up his half-century, matching the record set by Elton Chigumbura, and Zimbabwe were well set on 85-3 when he was out in the ninth over.
Naib also scored freely and held his nerve in a tense finale, scoring the winning runs from the penultimate ball as the tourists got home after needing 39 from the last three overs. He was lent solid support by Richmond Mutumbami, who hit 43 off 33 balls.
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For Afghanistan, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib and Amir Hamza took two wickets each while Rashid Khan captured one, said Hotak, praising Osman Ghani and Shahzad Mohammad for their outstanding batting.
